Posted
by
samzenpuson Thursday December 17, 2009 @01:44PM
from the marry-a-prostitute-day dept.

More than 1,000 followers of a multi-religious sect in northern India have decided to buck traditional wisdom and turn whores into housewives in an attempt to help them escape exploitation. The group (DSS) claims their pledge will also help stop the spread of AIDS. It is estimated that 40%-50% of women working in red light districts in large cities are HIV carriers. Dr Aditya Insan, a senior DSS functionary, said, "This will have to be a slow and delicately handled process. Many women are HIV-positive. Some have young children and are understandably concerned about their future. We need to ensure these women are protected legally once they are married."

The demonstrated link between educating women and raising living standards in third world countries has little to do with basic sanitation or in sending them into the workforce. It's main benefit is to counter a lot of the bullshit spread by organized religion: to inform young people that children are not "miracles" sent by God to help harvest your crops. Rather, they consume resources and cost money and having everyone reproduce past the rate of replacement is a recipe for ecological disaster

He's saying they are "nuts" because "sarcastic, condescending zealots" is a lot more to type. I'm not particularly religious or spiritual, but I try to avoid mocking others for what they do or do not believe.

This might turn out, if true, to be a real world execution of ideas proposed in Steven E. Landsburg's article (and subsequent book) "More Sex Is Safer Sex". The arguement goes that getting sexually conservative segments of the population to socially engage the sexually prolific segment of the population dampens the amount of partner swapping that goes on and can thus slow the rate of infection. There is a research paper in here somewhere that would make a good candidate for the Ig Nobel prize.